Other Food Allergies

Thoughts on living with adult PA

Adrienne mentioned in a new thread today that she has been reaction free for 15 years. Her post got me thinking about how careful - or careless I am....and how much I've learned in the past year. Will I go 15 years without a reaction? It doesn't seem impossible. And I suddenly realized - I have a comfort zone! Finally!

Home is safe. Eating outside of the home presents a risk. I can understand why parents have anxiety attacks when their PA kids become old enough to attend school.

There's definitely a difference between being a PA adult and PA child. Parents of PA children often avoid restaurants completely....yet I (and others...Erik, Adrienne, etc.) don't always have a choice. When I'm traveling for my occupation, I either eat in restaurants or go hungry.

A chef card has definitely helped! When I order, I stick with the basics. Salmon - baked potato and brocoli...or something similar. Never a dessert.

If I attend cocktail party type of get-togethers that have all kinds of yummy munchies I eat only the raw veggies and cheese. Even then, the cheese has to be 'plain' without stuff stuck on it. After a while, you get used to it...and realize it ain't worth the risk to stray.

I can really relate to Adrienne's posts. She, and other adults who have been living with PA for most of their lives are very matter-of-fact about it. They're careful - but it's no big deal. There's a logical way of dealing with the allergy. Eat basic stuff and don't take risks.

It's amazing how much this old dog has learned in the past year. I didn't think I'd ever get here.

Quote:I can really relate to Adrienne's posts. She, and other adults who have been living with PA for most of their lives are very matter-of-fact about it. They're careful - but it's no big deal. There's a logical way of dealing with the allergy. Eat basic stuff and don't take risks.

This is exactly how I live my life. I'm very careful every day of my life, but it's so second nature that it doesn't alter that life. I think there is a huge difference between children and parents, and adults, with how they deal with this. I also think it's a lot harder for children to deal with, there are far more risks of exposure for children, and children just aren't as capable of dealing with the allergy by themselves as adults are. It must be incredibly difficult to deal with it as a parent.

As a child, I can remember my dad always freaking out about anything I ate, making sure it didn't have peanuts in it. He was very careful about it, but I always thought he overreacted.

I can see from poking around here that there is definitely a difference between the parents of children and PA adults. Interesting dicotomy. I hope that the parents can take away from the adults that there is hope for thier children and you can live great lives with PA.

I think there's a massive difference too, between how parents deal with their kids' PA and how adults deal with their own PA, but I guess it's like anything, my parents worry about me when I'm driving on the motorway far more than I worry about myself, or they worry when I'm out (non PA reasons) far more than I worry about myself.

Obviously, I hope that I will not pass PA to my kids, but I wonder if I did whether I'd be as calm as I am about my own PA? My guess is probably not! It must be true that we all turn into our parents one day! Groan!

(Also, has anyone been to Finland, I'm going in two months, and don't speak a word of Finnish!)

Quote:Originally posted by Rach:
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Obviously, I hope that I will not pass PA to my kids, but I wonder if I did whether I'd be as calm as I am about my own PA? My guess is probably not! It must be true that we all turn into our parents one day! Groan!
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I worry about the same thing...will I have a PA child? That scares me more than my own allergy does. I can make a good guess that I would be a stressed out over controlling in-your-face-my-child-has-PA mom....for a while anyway.

I think there is actually a trichotomy on PA.com: parents who have PA kids, adults who have adult-onset PA, and adults who grew up with it since a young age.

Adele, even though I didn't grow up with it, it's been so long now I feel like I did. lol

As for not wanting your child to have pa, I actually worried more that my child would have a different food allergy. I already have a handle on the peanut. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img]

So, what happens? One born before my pa developed a latex allergy. One born after my pa developed an insect allergy. Could be worse, right?

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I do think having pa made it easier to deal with a toddler with an insect allergy though. I know the risks - and I know how important it is to be careful. But, I will not allow my child to grow up afraid of going anywhere outside. He goes places that are *high risk* for insects - and we are just really careful. If I hadn't lived with food allergies for so long, I don't know if I could do that.

Adrienne ~ [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img] Actually, I think it's a quadrichotomy (if that's even a word LOL). Parents of PA children, adults with PA, adult onset PA, *and* adults with PA who also have PA child(ren) - namely me and Jason - not sure of any others.

As for myself, I'm like many of the adults with lifelong PA - seemingly much more laid back and comfortable with PA than the majority of the parents who post. I am somewhat more careful with DS than myself, but still laid back in comparison to most others. My comfort zone varies widely due to my lifelong experiences. In many areas I am more comfortable than most, but in some areas I am stricter because of my experiences. Growing up PA has been invaluable in dealing with DS's PA and I feel blessed to have my own PA experience to help me navigate my child's PA - can't imagine how stressful it is for parents who haven't a clue going into it!